The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Amendment Bill 2021. The Bill will replace the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Amendment Ordinance. Under this, Jammu and Kashmir cadre will be accommodated in cadre AGSUT cadre of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories including Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, and Indian Forest Service. The President implemented the ordinance only last month.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kishan Reddy while replying to the discussion on the Bill said that the revolutionary steps taken by the Central Government in Jammu and Kashmir will accelerate the development in the Valley.
As per the provisions of the Bill, officers of the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, and Indian Forest Service of the existing Jammu and Kashmir cadre will now be part of the cadre of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories. All future allocations for the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will be from a cadre of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories.
This cadre needs to be merged into the cadre of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories so that the officers of this cadre can be deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. This will reduce the lack of officers there to some extent.
Earlier, participating in the discussion on the Bill, Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad demanded that the status of Jammu and Kashmir be restored as soon as possible. He questioned the need to merge the Jammu and Kashmir cadre into the cadre of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories.
Azad said that the government had talked about restoring the status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, but there is a possibility of this bill that it wants to keep Jammu and Kashmir permanently centered. If Jammu and Kashmir are to be given state status then what is the need for the merger of cadres.
He said that after the removal of Article 370 of the Constitution, the number of industries in Jammu and Kashmir has come down by about 60 percent. There were already a small number of industries and later a large number of them were shut down, which affected employment.
Azad said that the claim of development in Jammu and Kashmir is not genuine and there is no development on the ground. He said that roads are bad and the condition of water supply and electricity is also not good.